Hossein Ronaghi Freed on Bail

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Visibly weaker after a 38-day hunger strike, Iranian blogger Hossein Ronaghi was released on bail yesterday, May 4. According to the web site Journalism Is Not a Crime, the bail “300 million tomans (about $100,000) pending a review of his case.”

Since his return to prison in January, Iranian blogger Hossein Ronaghi’s health has deteriorated to the point that he was taken to outside clinics on at least two occasions, according to reports on Twitter, but he was not been admitted to a hospital because prosecutors (not doctors) have determined that his condition is not serious.

The blogger’s medical condition is serious: arrested in December 2009 and in and out of prisons since, one kidney has shut down and the other requires immediate attention.

(Below the fold is my post from March 30: “We are His Voice: Hossein Ronaghi.” I will post more as I learn it.)
Read More

Today in History: May 5

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Today is Cinco de Mayo.

* * * *
New York City’s “Music Hall founded by Andrew Carnegie,” now known as Carnegie Hall, had its opening night 125 years ago tonight. Music was conducted by Walter Damrosch and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, who conducted his “Marche Solennelle” (below the fold):
Read More

Hope Springs Internal

Posted on by Mark Aldrich

Doctor’s office, circa a few years ago.

I was sober for over a year at the time, but my life was still far from a day spent with a unicorn spitting candy as it carried me on golden highways that I thought some people were trying to convince me that their (new, sober) life is like. I had asked to see a therapist, and bureaucracy provided me with a pretty good one.
Read More